The Medical Student and Resident Boot Camp: Holy Transformation

In an interview by McKenna Snow for CatholicVote.org on April 11, 2025 (full interview is originally published: https://catholicvote.org/summer-boot-camp-equips-catholic-medical-students-with-training-on-bioethics-issues/), I described the importance of the annual weeklong Catholic Medical Association’s Boot Camp providing pro-life training for medical students.

With the 2025 CMA Boot Camp now completed one week ago, I wish to amend my CatholicVote.org interview to include one central reflection. My original description failed to capture the magnitude of grace encountered in the lives of the brilliant medical students constituting the 2025 CMA Boot Camp class. I encountered Christ Jesus Crucified in their beautiful friendships and courageous struggles. I witnessed the Gift of the Holy Spirit in their personal vocations and professional sacrifice to medicine. The 2025 weeklong Catholic Medical Association’s Boot Camp set my heart on fire with hope and Love to evangelize the Cross of Christ! Thus. what I failed to describe for CatholicVote.org is the holy transformation I would undergo by attending the 2025 CMA Boot Camp as the chair. I am immensely grateful and humbled by this Christ-centered encounter and holy experience.

Another CMA member who also attended the 2025 Boot Camp likewise observed, “your work is changing the world, more than you know… your work and dedication to our faith is moving them.  I am so grateful and humbled to call you friends and colleagues.  I simply want you to know how impactful your efforts are.” As St. Augustine once said “Lord, after this age and after our toil we will find fullness without ceasing in alleluia” (Sermon 252,9). What is this alleluia but the sanctification and sainthood of us all… Let Jesus Christ Crucified be praised, Alleluia.